Bryan Danielson Explains Original Plans For Talking Smack Promo With The Miz
Daniel Foster
Published Mar 28, 2026
On the August 23, 2016, a rare scenario arose in which WWE Talking Smack was more memorable than WWE SmackDown itself. When he played the SmackDown General Manager, Bryan Danielson was a regular presence on this post-show, but something unusual happened when The Miz came on board. The A-Lister cut an impassioned promo about how he didn’t get the respect he deserved. In the process, he went after Danielson in an uncomfortable, but riveting moment that walked the line between reality and storyline. Danielson bashed Miz for wrestling like a coward. Miz went after Danielson for, at the time, not being cleared to wrestle anymore.
The Original Plan For Bryan Danielson And The Miz On Talking Smack
Bryan Danielson took part in a live episode of The Sessions with Renee Paquette at Starrcast V over SummerSlam weekend. As reported by Ian Carey (Wrestling Observer), Danielson explained the plan was for the famous Talking Smack promo was for The Miz to go off on Danielson and cut so deeply on a personal level that fans would believe Danielson had, in actuality, been moved to deck him. He elaborated, “The idea was either they’re going to fire me or it’s going to make people want to see the match so much that they’re going to have to clear me to wrestle.”
Bryan Danielson Changed Plans On The Fly
Maybe it was a cooler head, or maybe it was a sense of intuition about what was best for the wrestling business. Regardless, in the moment of the live broadcast, Danielson “thought it was better to walk off, because it was also like, this is so good, leave him with his heat.”
Related: 10 Things You Forgot About The Miz Vs. Daniel Bryan RivalrySo it was that Danielson left and Miz improvised the finish to the promo on his own—delivering one of the most memorable speeches of his wrestling career.
In the end, Bryan Danielson and The Miz certainly succeeded at generating buzz. It was a weird moment in Danielson’s career, in particular, as fans speculated about where the angle was going and if Danielson had been cleared to return to the ring. He would end up coming back, of course, but not until 2018. The two wound up wrestling multiple times, including a featured match at that year’s SummerSlam. Interestingly, Danielson also commented to Renee Paquette that he genuinely does not like the Miz, but that he “is also somebody that I respect a lot for working very, very hard.”
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